69 Love Affair
by Lanie L Sullivan
Summary: Set just after the tag of "Charity Begins at Home." A one-shot response to the Summer of '69 challenge issued by Khell.


Disclaimer: "Scarecrow and Mrs. King" is copyrighted to Warner Brothers and Shoot the Moon Productions. The plot is mine, but not the characters. This story is meant for enjoyment purposes only. No infringement is intended.

Author's Note: This story is a response to the challenge put out by Khell...the "Bryan Adams" challenge to have one character outline to another what they were doing in the Summer of '69. A little nod to Lee saying he'd gotten his car in a poker game. Since he didn't specify which car, I thought this might fit. Set just after "Charity Begins at Home."

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"Maybe I'll get to ride in it someday," Amanda said wistfully.

Seeing the slightest bit of doubt in her eyes, Lee confirmed with a smile, "Count on it." When Amanda beamed in response, he suggested, "In fact, if you're not doing anything right now, we could..." He mimed driving.

"Oh...I...um..." she looked down and gestured at her attire, "I'm...um...not really dressed for taking a ride." At seeing the disappointed look in his eyes, she quickly added, "Not that I wouldn't love to." She smiled brightly at him.

Once he realized that she wasn't turning him down indefinitely, he smiled back and couldn't resist teasing her. "I seem to recall the day we met, you weren't so shy about wearing your nightgown out in public."

Her mouth dropped open and she flushed in embarrassment. "You noticed that?"

"I'm a spy. I'm trained to notice everything." He chuckled softly and then asked, "Would you at least like to see it?"

"I would love to," she assured him as she linked her arm with his and they made their way down her driveway to where his new car sat parked at the curb.

"Isn't she a beauty?" he gushed proudly

"She certainly is," Amanda responded as she eyed the sleek, shiny Corvette.

"And you know what else? This is the first time ever that I've owned a brand new car, not a used one."

"Oh, but your old one was nice too," Amanda put in, but then frowned as she realized that might not have been the best thing to say since he'd been rather upset over the loss of the Porsche and watching it go up in flames.

Instead of the downcast reaction she'd expected from him, he surprised her with a cheerful, "Yes, but I think I'm gonna' like this one a whole lot better." He paused for a beat, leaned casually against the 'vette and then asked, "Did I ever tell you how I got that one?"

"No, you never did," she answered, her curiosity piqued.

"Well, I was nineteen and I'd just finished my freshman year of college and I had been saving up as much money as I could all year, even what was left over of my football scholarship money because I was dying to get a car. After a year of freedom, I hated the idea of going back to the Air Force base and being under my uncle's thumb again. I have to admit, I was a bit of a hothead in those days."

"You? I'm shocked." She interjected in feigned surprise. It was such a nice change to hear him talk about himself, something he didn't do often.

"Hey! Do you wanna' hear this story or not?"

She giggled, but then composed herself and said, "Go on. I'm listening."

"Well, anyway, between my summer job the year before, what was left of my school money and my work study job, I had a couple of thousand saved, which was enough to either pay for an apartment for the summer or get a car."

"So, what'd you do? If you were going to have your own place, you'd need a car to get around."

"Right." He nodded in agreement."Well, as it turned out, my uncle wasn't any more anxious to have me come back to live with him than I was to go back to the base, so we worked out a deal. He offered to give me a loan to pay for a place, with the promise that I'd work all summer to pay him back."

"Sounds like a fair deal," Amanda responded.

"You would think so, wouldn't you? But, me, being the hothead that I was then, I didn't see it that way, so I pretty much told him to go to hell and that I'd figure it out on my own. I had a buddy that was staying in town, one of my fraternity brothers, and he offered to let me crash at his place until I could get one of my own."

"Oh, Lee." Amanda shook her head. It still made her a little sad to think about how strained the relationship between Lee and his only living family member was.

"Are you gonna' let me tell this story?" he questioned. When she mimed zipping her mouth shut, he continued. "Well, anyway, I happened to pass by this used car lot one day when I was taking the bus home from my summer job and there she was, this beauty of a car. I just knew that was the one for me, so I had the driver stop right then and there." He smiled fondly as he remembered that day. "I'm telling you, it was love at first sight."

"I thought you said you don't love a car," she teased.

"Okay, okay, so maybe you do...just a little. I just knew that was the one for me."

"That's it?" With all the build-up, she'd thought there would be more to the story than that.

"No, that's not it. Would ya' just let me tell the story my way?" For someone who liked to draw out stories herself, she was very impatient when it came to listening to one.

"Okay, I'm sorry. Go on," she urged him. The last thing she wanted to do was encourage him to clam up on her when he'd just really begun to share things with her.

"Well, like I said, when I saw the Porsche, I just knew that was the car I had to have. Trouble was that I only had two-thousand dollars and they wanted three for it. Even though it was six years old, I couldn't get the dealer to budge an inch on the price."

"So, what happened next?"

"Well, the one thing that I could do was get him to agree to hold it for me, but only for a day. He said if I wasn't back with the cash in twenty-four hours, then it was first-come, first-serve. As it turned out, my roommate had an in for a high stakes poker game that night and he agreed to take me along."

"Ooh, Lee, isn't that kinda' risky?"

"Not any riskier than what I do for a living," he pointed out.

"Good point."

"So, anyway, I walked in there with the two grand I'd been saving and bet the whole shebang and wouldn't you know it, I'm sitting there with these cards that looked like fruit salad and the best shot I've got is drawing to an inside straight."

"Ugh," she groaned. "So, you lost it all?"

He shook his head and grinned. "Nope. I won, not only enough to get my car, but enough to pay for my own place for the rest of the summer. I spent the rest of the summer fixing her up, tune-ups, detailing, the works."

"Well, it must be really sad for you to have lost her," Amanda commented sympathetically.

"Yeah, but you know what would have been sadder?"

"What's that?"

"If I'd lost you too," he replied honestly. "You were there and if you'd gotten caught..."

She flushed slightly at the intense scrutiny of his gaze. "But I didn't."

"I know, I know, but I got to thinking a lot about it after I watched that car explode. I put you in a lot of danger and I-" He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He changed the subject to avoid the awkwardness he felt. "You know the best thing about the new car?"

"What's that?"

"It's an automatic, so if we ever get in a jam again where you have to drive..."

"That was smart thinking." She was touched, both by his concern for her safety and for thinking of her in his car purchase. It seemed that he was finally starting to accept her as his partner. "I'm glad you came by to share it with me." She gestured to the house. "But it's...uh...it's getting kinda' late and I should get in."

"Yeah. Yeah, of course. Thanks for listening."

She smiled at him one more time and with a quick "Goodnight," hurried into the house.

As he drove home, Lee couldn't help thinking that that long ago day in 1969 and how differently he felt now. As he watched Amanda's neighborhood disappearing from his rearview mirror, he realized that the attachment he'd once felt to the Porsche couldn't hold a candle to the attachment he was beginning to feel for her.


End file.
